Large eddy simulation of a circular jet: effect of inflow conditions on the near field

In the present study, the effects of the jet inflow conditions such as the initial momentum thickness (0) and background disturbances on the downstream evolution or a circular jet are investigated using large eddy simulation (LES). We consider Four different initial momentum thicknesses, D/theta = 50, 80, 120 and 180, and three different Reynolds numbers, Re-D = UJD/v 3600, 10(4) and 10(5), where U-J is the jet inflow velocity and D is the jet diameter. The present study shows that the jet characteristics significantly depend on both the initial momentum thickness and the Reynolds number. For all the Reynolds numbers considered in this study, vortex rings are generated at ail earlier position with decreasing initial momentum thickness. In case of a relatively low Reynolds number of Re-D = 3600, at smaller initial momentum thickness, early growth of the shear layer due to the early generation of vortex ring leads to the occurrence of large-scale coherent structures in earlier downstream locations, which results in larger mixing enhancement and more rapid increase in turbulence intensity. However, at a high Reynolds number such as Re-D = 10(5), with decreasing initial momentum thickness, rapid growth of the shear layer leads to the saturation of the shear layer and the generation of fine-scale turbulence structures, which reduces mixing and turbulence intensity. With increasing Re-theta (= U-J theta/v), the characteristic frequency corresponding to the shear layer mode (St(theta) = F theta/U-J) gradually increases and reaches near 0.017 predicted from the inviscid instability theory. On the other hand, the frequency corresponding to the jet-preferred mode (St(D) = fD/U-J) varies depending on Re-D and D/theta. From a mode analysis, we show that, it, view or the energy of the axial velocity fluctuations integrated over the radial direction. the double-helix mode (mode 2) becomes dominant past the potential core, but the axisymmetric mode (mode 0) is dominant near the jet exit. In view of the local energy, the disturbances grow along the shear layer near the jet exit: For thick shear layer, mode 0 grows much faster than other modes, but modes 0-3 grow almost simultaneously for thin shear layer. However, past the potential core, the dominant mode changes from mode 0 near the centerline to mode 1 and then to mode 2 with increasing radial direction regardless of the initial shear layer thickness.